When the Storm Breaks
by Hazelmist
Summary: She probably hates him, and maybe she should. He reaches for her anyway. Alec and Ellie are trapped together in a storm. Slight Alec/Ellie.
1. It Started With a Storm

**When the Storm Breaks**

**By Hazelmist**

**Summary: She probably hates him, and maybe she should. He reaches for her anyway. Slight Alec/Ellie. **

**A/N: Spoiler Alert: Don't read unless you've seen the last episode. Obviously, none of this belongs to me. **

The storm starts just hours before their first face to face encounter, but it had been brewing in Broadchurch for months.

Ellie Miller loathes Alec Hardy even before she meets him on the beach on that fateful day. He took her fucking job. Of course she hates him. And Alec Hardy isn't exactly charmed by her either. He wanted peace, quiet, and to be left alone. Instead he's interrogated, harassed, and smothered by this little rural D.S. that's so adamant about protecting the innocence of her small town that she might ruin his entire investigation before it can even begin.

They're so different that it's amazing they get anything done together that first week. She strikes him as far too warm, naïve and stubborn, and he's so cold, bitter, and aloof. He infuriates her. She annoys him. But they're driven by the same desperate need to solve this crime and catch the bloody bastard that killed Danny Latimer. She knew and cared for the boy, and he needs to clear his conscious with this crime before his time runs out. Somehow, united by their mutual desire to get justice at whatever cost, she learns to bite her tongue and open her eyes to the darker truths of humanity, and he begins to listen to her and share the burdens he carries with her. Gradually, their hostility towards one another evolves into tolerance, respect, and even a fragile trust.

Fifty-nine days later the storm that ripped through that sleepy town finally takes its last victim, as the exhausted killer is beaten down by his own conscious and steps forward to confess to Alec everything he needs to hear.

The case is closed and Alec finally gets his closure. His heart should be able to rest easy now that his penance is done. He loses his job and he almost sacrifices his life in the process, but at least it's over. The moment he saw Danny's body on the beach, he knew he would give everything he had left just to bring this crime to its horrific conclusion. But he never expected that it would hurt this much or that he had anything else left to lose.

Breaking the news to Ellie nearly fucking kills him. She worked so hard and had done so well and yet all along the cold-blooded killer was sleeping in the same bed as her. While Hardy had foreseen his own tragic demise, Ellie had not and had never had any reason to. In a matter minutes, her husband is exposed and severed from her forever, her heart is broken, her family is destroyed, and the entire town that knew and loved her, the whole damn community that she had once fought so hard to protect from him and the very killer that slept under her own roof, has turned its back on her forever. Her whole world is shattered with three revealing words.

"_It was Joe_."

She cracks right there in the interrogation room and Alec knows that nothing he or anyone else does or says will ever be able to put her back together again. That's what destroys him.

The storm of Danny Latimer's murder threatened to demolish the little community of Broadchurch, but from a distance Alec watches the entire town coming together on the beach to heal in the aftermath. They hold hands and grieve side by side, lighting fires and remembering the life of one of their own. And Alec knows that though they're hurting now, Broadchurch will survive this and continue to go on, perhaps stronger and closer than ever. He hates them just a little bit for it, because she'll never be a part of it.

The storm breaks, and Alec is left adrift in its aftermath, an outsider once more. And this time Ellie is there with him, ostracized, devastated and so very alone. He knows she can't look back, because it hurts too much. And he can't look at her directly because he recognizes the storm simmering in her eyes. The anger at her husband's betrayal still seethes inside her and he can't bear to see it, because one day it'll be gone, and she'll only find herself to blame. And he'll hate to see her so empty, so alone, and so much like himself.

She tells him she'll move on, give the boys a fresh start, and he knows she will try her hardest for the sake of her two kids. He realizes now that he underestimated her when they first met and that she can handle a lot more than he ever expected. He thinks that maybe if anyone can move past this, it'll be Ellie.

But when he finally turns to look at her again, she's twisted around and gazing at everything she just said she was leaving behind.

"We can never go back to the way things were," she whispers disbelievingly and her voice cracks. She brings her hand to her mouth, but she can't hold the sobs back any longer. She's miles away from him now, wrapped up in her own private hell that she'll live in long after Danny Latimer's story is buried. He's not even sure if she's aware he's still sitting on the bench beside her, and he probably should let her alone to grieve. But he stays.

She probably hates him, and maybe she should. He shifts closer to her on the bench. She flinches when his shoulder brushes hers. He reaches for her anyway. She lashes out at him, calls him some nasty names, and he thinks that this is the last time they'll see each other and that maybe she really does blame him for everything. But then she collapses against him and drags him down with her into that dark spiraling storm and he knows that she wasn't yelling at him. He's the only thing she has left to hang onto.

Now, he feels how much she's hurting because she's hurting him. He can feel her nails snagging on his coat, tearing at the seams as she clings to him. Her tears are so hot that they sear his skin as they soak through the fabric of his shirt. Each and every sob rips through him like the storm that tore through this town, and he knows now that Ellie Miller is not just something that was washed up like a piece of driftwood in the wake of the storm, she is still trapped in the center of that storm. And now so is he.

He holds her closer and they try to ride out the storm together.

He doesn't know when she finally cried herself out and fell asleep on his shoulder. But he does remember rubbing his face only to have his fingers come back wet and salty with tears that may or may not have been his own. Exhausted, he leans back on the bench, noticing for the first time that the skies are clear. Shivering, he huddles closer to her warmth before closing his own eyes and shutting out the constellations above.

He opens his eyes again to the brightness of a new day dawning in the aftermath of a storm. He can hear the distant roar of the waves from here. The sea's calmer today and though the fires burned out hours ago, the smell of smoke still lingers in the air. Danny's death will always linger here even if they did manage to lay the case to rest.

"Tell me it was all a bad dream."

More than anything he wants to tell the broken woman curled against his side that it was nothing more than a nightmare. But it's the one thing he'll never be able to do for her.

"I'm sorry," he apologizes. Her face falls as that last spark of hope burns out, and he's reminded again of what he never thought he had left to lose. He reassures himself that though the storm is far from over for her, she doesn't have to weather it alone. He'll make sure of that.

"Come on," he says, nudging her. He gets up from the bench and holds out a hand to her. She takes it automatically, allowing him to pull her to her feet.

She's drawn back one last time and they drink in the sight of that slumbering coastal town together.

"I don't know where to go from here," she admits helplessly.

"I don't think any of us do," he agrees, but it's a lie. When she leaves, he knows he'll follow her. Because he's already decided that he's going with her, wherever she chooses to go, until he's certain that the storm is truly over and Ellie will be okay.

**A/N: I LOVED Broadchurch, even if it did nearly kill me because it was SO sad and so tragically beautiful in its own way. I fell in love with the whole cast of characters, but Ellie and Alec are the two I'm going to miss the most. I'll probably continue this or write more oneshots because I can't bring myself to say goodbye to these two just yet. Sorry if it's OOC. **


	2. Lost in a Storm

**When the Storm Breaks**

**By Hazelmist**

**A/N: This takes place a few months after the first chapter. Sorry it took so long, I tried to rewrite it so many times that I just broke it into two chapters. This is the first part. **

It had been a somewhat promising day, but as usual the meteorologists had gotten the weather forecast all wrong and his former colleagues at the Broadchurch police department had proven themselves to be stupider than he remembered. Now, retired D.I. Alec Hardy was trudging uphill and desperately trying to ignore the tightness in his chest and the dark clouds that were rolling in overhead. As the wind picked up around him, he stopped to catch his breath and pulled out the map he'd hastily drawn out under the direction of the new D.S. Even as he squinted down at his own messy scrawl, large droplets of water were dotting the paper. He tried to smooth it out and he smeared the ink as the rain came down harder. Shoving the worthless map into his pocket, he shouldered onward in what he hoped was the right direction.

Fortunately, the road soon ended in a steep incline that led up to only one little cottage half buried in hedges and shrubbery. It surprised him that she would've ended up here so near and yet so isolated from the community she'd loved and then destroyed. Didn't it hurt being in such close proximity to the crime? After Sandbrook, he couldn't get far enough away from that place. But Ellie's case had been different and so was she.

Pulling his coat closer, he knocked loudly on the front door. He was anxious to get out of the rain and to get this done with quickly. The last time he saw Ellie had been months ago, and they hadn't parted on the best of terms. He had tried to talk her out of attending her husband's trial, but she'd ignored him and gone anyway. It hadn't taken long for the media to catch wind of her presence, and when they couldn't get their hands on Joe or the family, they attacked her instead with rude reporters and blinding camera flashes. There had been nothing Alec could do, and Ellie had blown up at him when he finally got her away from them. Alec knew he wasn't to blame and that she just needed some time to cool down, but he'd lost his temper and told her that it was her own fault for coming. By the time Alec was ready to talk to her again, Ellie had already vanished and had wisely changed all of her contact information so the press couldn't pursue her and her family. And that was why Alec was shocked to find her so close to home and why he was currently standing on her front stoop in the pouring rain.

Alec swore under his breath, cursing the stubborn Ellie, the goddamn weather, the whole stupid little town, and the inept police department that had called him in because they were too cowardly to take care of it themselves. He knocked again and the door cracked open. Recognizing the shadow in the doorway, he hastily swallowed another string of foul words.

"Hello, Tom," Alec said, recalling the name of Ellie's eldest. "I'm Detective Inspector Alec Hardy. I used to work with your mother," he reminded him, flashing his old badge.

"I know," Tom said, nodding and opening the door wider.

"Is your Mum around?" Alec inquired. Tom shook his head but he glanced uneasily over his shoulder, confirming that she had to be somewhere nearby. Alec had already noted the car in the driveway hadn't been moved in some time.

"I really need to talk to her. It'll only take a minute, I promise," he reassured the nervous boy. "May I come inside?" Alec asked as politely as possible. Tom shook his head.

"I'm not supposed to let anyone in." Tom tried to shut the door but Alec's hand shot out to halt him.

"Please, Tom, I just walked from town and got caught in the storm. Can I at least come in for a moment to dry off and call for a cab?" he begged. He didn't have to act the part; he was completely drenched and getting more wet by the second. Tom bit down on his lip and Alec shivered.

"Fine," Tom said, turning and leaving the door wide open for him. "But if Mum finds out, I'm telling her you held me at gunpoint."

"Thanks," Alec said, shutting the door behind him and deciding not to tell the boy that he'd been relieved of his gun months ago. He sincerely hoped Ellie had been too, because he wasn't sure if she'd shoot him when she found him in her house.

He removed his dripping coat and hung it on one of the hooks by the door beside Ellie's bright orange parka. Then he took off his shoes because they were caked with sand and mud from the trek up to the house, and he didn't need to give Ellie another reason to murder him whenever she decided to emerge from wherever she was hiding. He found it very hard to believe that she'd gone anywhere in this weather without her car or her parka, but then again he had.

He was damp and chilled to the bone, but at least he wasn't out in the rain anymore. Awkwardly, he padded through Ellie's new house, coming across a kitchen and then the living room where Tom sat perched on the edge of the sofa, pretending to be absorbed by the television.

"Tom, do you mind if I make myself a cup of tea?" Alec asked softly. "I can make you something too if you'd like…?" Tom hesitated, but then shrugged and turned the television off.

"Okay, I can show you the kitchen," the boy offered, hopping up from the sofa and leading the way. Alec followed, noticing that Tom had grown slightly since the last time he'd seen him. Kids grew up so fast, and Alec winced at the thought of how much his own daughter must've grown since he'd last seen her.

Now, that he'd found a suitable excuse for Alec's presence, Tom seemed to have conveniently forgotten that Alec was only supposed to be there until he could dry off and call a cab. He helped Alec with the tea, making a show of taking some himself, even though it was obvious that Tom hadn't yet acquired a liking for tea yet, despite the addition of a lot of honey and sugar. Tom toyed with the cup and his saucer as Alec made polite inquiries that he answered with shyness and reluctance, and then gradually with more confidence and enthusiasm. At first, Alec's only objective was to figure out where the hell Ellie was but as they continued to talk, Alec began to take a genuine interest in Ellie's son. Perhaps, it was because he was out of practice, or maybe it was because he missed his own daughter, but Alec quickly lost track of both his goal and the time as he and Tom got lost in the world of sports, school, and Tom's life in general.

It wasn't until the baby started crying, that Alec glanced up at the clock and was alarmed to see that nearly an hour had passed, and Ellie had yet to make an appearance. Tom paled and abandoned Alec and the tea in a mad dash for the stairs. Alec stood and stopped at the bottom of the staircase. He could hear Tom soothing the child with nonsensical words somewhere on the floor above, but when the child continued to fuss, Alec followed him upstairs.

"Shhh, Fred, you'll wake Mum," Tom was telling his younger brother in a hushed voice as Alec approached the nursery. Alec paused, glancing down the hall at the only closed door. Ah, so that was where Mum was hiding. For the first time, it occurred to Alec that there might have been a legitimate reason as to why Ellie had been so hard to get a hold of, and he felt a little ashamed that he had intruded.

Then Tom came out with the pudgy toddler balanced awkwardly on his hip.

"I think Fred's hungry," he said, thrusting the child into Alec's arms. Alec barely had time to catch the squirming toddler before Tom was racing back down to the kitchen. Stealing a last guilty look at the closed door, Alec went after Tom with Fred.

Tom seemed to know a lot more about taking care of a toddler than Alec had when his daughter had been this age, and Alec marveled at how much older Tom was now in the absence of his father. It occurred to him suddenly that Joe had been a stay at home Dad and had probably spent more time with his two sons than their own mother. Alec couldn't even begin to conceive the kind of impact that the loss of Danny and his father must be having on Tom. Up until this point, he'd only thought of Ellie. But the frazzled boy before him and the toddler that refused to sit still in his lap were a reminder that she wasn't the only one who would have to deal with the repercussions.

Two hours later, Alec gently extracted the sleepy toddler from his older brother who had worn himself out trying to chase after him and keep him quiet enough not to wake their mother. Tom was now fast asleep on the sofa and Alec didn't have the heart to wake him. Scooping Fred up, Alec took it upon himself to return the toddler to his crib.

It was harder than he expected, not because he was so exhausted that climbing the stairs nearly did him in, but because it had been so long since Alec had held someone as small and helpless as Fred. The little boy was snuggled against his chest, drooling and blissfully unaware of all that his brother and mother were forced to endure. Alec remembered when his daughter had still fit comfortably into his arms, and he had an insanely strong paternal instinct to cradle Fred as long as he could and shield him from all the evil that was waiting for him in the world just outside the front door. The rain thrashed against the windows and the wind whistled through the branches, fiercely reminding Alec that there was little he could do to stop what was happening in the world outside. Besides, he'd done such a fantastic job protecting his own daughter that she didn't even want to see him and had barely spoken to him at all in the past year. What could he possibly expect to be able to do for Ellie's sons? Reluctantly, Alec lowered the child back into his crib and gazed down at him.

He didn't know how much time he spent watching Fred sleep and listening to the storm rage outside that little house, but at some point he must have sat down in the rocking chair and dozed off.

When he woke the wind was howling, and he was facing the storm head on in the form of a very irate and terrifying Ellie Miller. And, while she did not have a gun, he quickly discovered that nothing compared to the wrath of Ellie and that she could turn anything into a potentially lethal weapon, including one of Fred's seemingly harmless toys.

**A/N: Will Ellie kill Alec? You'll have to wait to find out! Please review! The next chapter's already finished and will be up in a few days!**


	3. Trapped in a Storm

**When the Storm Breaks**

**By Hazelmist**

**A/N: This chapter takes place immediately following the end of the previous chapter when Ellie walks in on Alec and wakes him up. **

**Chapter 3: Trapped in a Storm**

In the end, Ellie wasn't what brought him down.

"Oh, my God!" Ellie gasped, as Alec bent over and clutched his chest. The shock of finding her standing over him like that had been too much for his heart, and the walk in the rain and chasing after a toddler for over an hour hadn't exactly improved his cardiac condition.

Squeezing his eyes shut, he reached for the pills only to discover that they were in his coat downstairs. Somehow, he must've managed to convey this to Ellie between gasps, or maybe she worked it out on her own, because the pills were soon pressed into his hand and then later a glass of water.

It was a long time after he'd swallowed both down that he dared to open his eyes again. He was almost sorry when he was able to focus on her. A heart attack probably would've been better than facing her in this terrifying state. Fortunately, she looked almost as tired as he felt as she leant against the side of the crib across from him.

"Well, you look like shit," Ellie observed, clearly suppressing the urge to call him many other worse things in the presence of her young son.

"Thanks," Alec said. "You nearly sent me into cardiac arrest."

"Don't tempt me, sir," Ellie warned him, eyes flashing. "You still haven't explained what you're doing in my sleeping son's room in the middle of the night."

"He's still sleeping?" Alec noted with some shock. It had all been a bit fuzzy but he was fairly certain that Ellie had been yelling at him at one point to get up or she'd kill him.

"Fortunately, he is," she said through gritted teeth, "but if you don't tell me what's going on than I'll be forced to do something to you that will probably wake him."

"He already did wake up," Alec informed her. "And he made more than enough noise to wake up the entire neighborhood before Tom and I put him to bed. But you slept through it all. He must get it from you."

Ellie went white and Alec realized that he was going about this all wrong. She'd nearly killed him, and she'd already made it clear she could and would do it again if necessary. He started to get up, but then she spoke quietly.

"He gets it from Joe." She was gripping the edge of the crib so hard that her knuckles were bloodless. "I'm a light sleeper but today I took some of those pills that help me sleep. It was stupid of me, I know, but I just needed to sleep…" she trailed off, her face softening as she took in her slumbering son. Alec felt a flash of guilt as he observed how badly she looked like she deserved those few precious hours of sleep. After everything she'd been through, who could possibly blame her?

"I'm sorry, Ellie," he sighed, slumping down in the rocking chair.

"Don't – please, don't _Ellie_ me," she hissed, "I don't need _your_ pity too."

He had pitied her when he first revealed the murderer and she broke down in the interrogation room right in front of him, but pity wasn't what he felt when he looked at her now and he wished she could understand that. He knew she was strong enough to get through this on her own, but she didn't have to push _everyone_ away just to prove it. That's exactly what she'd done, though, after the trial. She'd holed up here, just miles away from the quaint little home that the happy Millers had once shared with nothing but a bottle of sleep pills to combat the memories that surrounded her. And it bothered him.

"Would you rather I call you Miller?" he practically snarled. "Won't be Miller, much longer though, eh? You must have already figured that out. That's why they sent me, and that's why you took your bottle of pills, isn't it?"

Ellie's head shot up so fast that he knew he had been wrong. She really didn't know why he was there and once again he cursed the stupidity of each and every member of the Broadchurch police department. Alec gripped the arm rests of the rocking chair, resolving himself to break the painful truth to her yet again.

"Joe agreed to a divorce." He dropped his eyes to where the paint was flaking beneath his fingernails and explained it all in a rush. "I brought the papers with me. They're in my coat and if they're not completely ruined by the storm I got caught in, you can sign them. If not, I can go back and get another copy so you don't have to deal with the solicitor or the imbeciles–"

"Today's my fourteenth anniversary," Ellie interrupted him. Alec looked at her. "It's the first anniversary I've spent alone and the first since…" She didn't have to fill in the blanks. He knew now why she'd needed the bottle of sleeping pills to block out today of all days.

"He sent me flowers," she told him.

Christ, Alec really wasn't equipped to handle this. What kind of sick bastard would do something like that?

"I think it was something he set up beforehand, perhaps years ago, so he never forgot…" She shrugged. "I guess he never had any reason to think we'd ever…" She shook her head and wrapped her arms around herself. She looked so small and pale standing there in her nightgown and her hair undone that Alec didn't know what to say.

She sighed and turned to look at him.

"Does it ever get easier?"

Alec had no idea what she was referring to until she held up her hand and he was drawn to the sparkle of the diamond on her left ring finger. Alec glanced down at his own left hand, but it was bare and after two years there wasn't even the slightest indentation or change in color to mark the gold band that had rested there for fourteen years. He wanted to lie to her, he really, really did. But lying to Ellie was impossible now.

"I guess," he said, rubbing the spot where the ring had once been. "But I don't really know. It's only been two years." He'd lost so much weight as a result of the trial, the divorce proceedings, and the decline in his health, that the ring had actually slipped off his finger at some point two years ago and Alec had never found it. Alec thought it was appropriate, because like Ellie he probably would have never been able to remove it himself.

Ellie looked so sad that Alec wished for the hundredth time that she didn't have to ask him so many bloody questions. She should know by now that he wasn't going to lie to her.

"It's late," he cleared his throat and got up from the chair. "I'll check my coat for the paperwork and then I'll call a cab."

"Don't be ridiculous, no one's going out in _this_," she scoffed, gesturing toward the rain streaked window. The wind and rain were still pounding relentlessly against the side of the house and Alec knew that she was right.

"We'll deal with the paperwork in the morning," Ellie told him before he could refuse. "You can sleep on the sofa tonight."

"I'll sleep in here," he offered, motioning toward the chair he'd just vacated. When Ellie narrowed her eyes, he informed her that Tom was already asleep on the sofa.

"Oh, I can wake him up." She turned to go downstairs but Alec caught her arm.

"I'm alright with the chair," he assured her. "There's no need to wake Tom."

"Fine, you'll sleep in Tom's bed," Alec blanched and Ellie hastily backtracked, suggesting instead, "Or I can sleep in Tom's and you can sleep in mine."

"I'm sleeping in the chair," Alec insisted stubbornly.

"You're a guest. You can't just sleep in a chair!" Ellie argued, her voice rising.

"Of course, I can! I was, up until the point that you tried to kill me," he pointed out.

"You were in my son's room. What did you expect me to do?" she snapped. She stepped toward him and stabbed a finger into the center of his chest. "And just for the record, if you do decide to sleep in here, I will make you wish you had a heart attack if you wake up my son at any point during the night."

"Oh, for god's sake," Alec sighed, grabbing her hand and twisting it away from his chest. He pulled her from the nursery and closed the door behind them before they did wake the child up and she followed through with the threat. How could he have forgotten how maddening she could be? She wrenched her hand from his grasp and whirled on him. But a sound from below stopped them before they could continue bickering.

Ellie tiptoed to the edge of the stairs to check on her son. Alec folded his arms over his chest and leaned back against the nursery door. At this point, he was so tired and frustrated that he was seriously contemplating walking out into the rain and sleeping in a ditch by the side of the road. Moments later, she reappeared and beckoned for him to follow her. Rolling his eyes, he let her lead him to her bedroom and shut him inside with her.

"I'm not taking your bed!" he said, shaking his head.

"God, you're stubborn! You can sleep on the floor or in the bloody shower, I don't care!" She pushed past him and he sat down heavily on the edge of the bed as she flung open a wooden chest tucked into a corner of the bedroom. "There are extra pillows and blankets in here. And the bathroom's through here." She crossed the room and opened a door to reveal the bathroom that adjoined the bedroom.

"It's a perfect bed," Alec said upon seeing the small shower cramped into the tiny room. He'd never fit unless he slept standing up, and at this point, he probably would end up doing just that. "Just like a five star hotel."

"I do what I can, sir," Ellie said, bowing her head and flashing him a fake smile.

He gallantly motioned for her to go first, adding, "You better use it now before I make up my bed in there."

Ellie muttered something about him being a knob and then disappeared inside, slamming the door shut. Alec chuckled and leaned back against the headboard and the soft pillows. He was too tired to move and decided to close his eyes for a moment. By the time Ellie reemerged from the bathroom, Alec was still sitting on the bed and was nearly asleep.

"After all that, the bastard took my bed!" he heard her hiss and he smirked, half tempted to claim it just to rile her.

"I'll move in a second, I promise," he said sleepily, though he wasn't quite ready to open his eyes.

"It's alright, sir, I can sleep on the floor," she offered grudgingly.

"No, I'm getting up," he groaned, wincing as he sat up. He opened his eyes and the room went fuzzy. Damn it. He had to lie down again. Suddenly, Ellie was perched beside him and hovering over him with a fresh glass of water and the rest of the pills.

"Just in case," she said, setting them down on the nightstand.

"Thanks," he murmured. "But I'll be up in a minute."

"Shut up and go to sleep," Ellie ordered. He watched through bleary eyes as she rearranged the other items on the nightstand, collecting a flower tucked behind the framed photograph of her sons, before she picked up her own bottle of pills and fingered the lid. Alec reached for her wrist and stopped her.

"Ellie, please," he whispered and she went rigid. "Neither of us is going to sleep at all unless you get the bed."

Ellie frowned and looked as if she might argue with him. But then her shoulders slumped and she hid the flower again and carefully replaced the pill bottle on the nightstand.

"Fine, move over," she demanded, turning toward him.

"What?"

"You're on my side of the bed!"

"Aw, come on, Miller!" he moaned.

"Shut it or go sleep somewhere else," she snapped, smacking his shoulder as she squeezed into her side of the bed.

"Maybe I will," he grumbled petulantly but he slid over to allow her into the bed.

"Fair enough," Ellie agreed, snuggling into the pillows beside him. The bed was a lot smaller than he'd anticipated. Whose idea had this been again? He shifted in the bed, trying to get comfortable again and his long arm stretched out over the quilt and accidentally settled on her hip.

"I'm married!" she reminded him, slapping his hand away.

"Not for much longer," he mumbled.

The bed springs squeaked and he opened his eyes to find her sitting up and glaring down at him. He threw up his hands.

"I just risked my life and walked three fucking miles to deliver you your divorce papers. You better not be changing your bloody mind now!"

For a split second, Alec really thought she was going to murder him right there in her bed.

"Alright, I'll just go sleep outside," Alec said hastily, struggling to sit up again. But Ellie already had a handful of his shirt in her hand.

"_You_! You rude, obstinate, irritating man! How dare you come in here and – and –" She broke off as if she had completely lost her train of thought and then just when Alec was certain she'd give into her rage and smash his head into the headboard, she did something shocking. She snorted and released him. "Shit, you're right." Her shoulders shook and he realized that she was actually laughing.

"I'm getting divorced on my fucking anniversary. And my husband sent me _flowers_!" she went on hysterically laughing. "He couldn't even get my birthday right most years," she giggled, wiping at her eyes. Alec couldn't help it, Ellie was right, it was somewhat funny in a ghastly way. A snicker escaped him, and then his shoulders were shaking as well, because Ellie was laughing and it was contagious.

"And then of course they just have to send _you_ out in the middle of a storm because I was such a mess that I didn't even fill the paperwork properly. Who misspells their own name?" she asked herself before swatting his arm. "And _you_, you don't even work for them anymore, do you? What the bloody hell are you doing here?"

"I don't know." Alec shrugged. "I think they were either terrified of you or they were too stupid to realize that you had only moved a few miles away. Can't really blame them though, after the trial I tried to find you and this is the last place I ever would've looked." Ellie sobered, and Alec immediately wished he could bite down on his tongue and take it all back.

"You were looking for me?" She gaped at him.

"Why'd you come back?" Alec asked, avoiding the question in her eyes by asking one of his own. "Why here? They shun you and blame you for something that isn't your fault."

"I didn't know where else to go."

"You could've gone _anywhere_," he reminded her but she shook her head.

"This is all I've ever known, and in a way, maybe - maybe I do have to take the blame. I was the one sleeping next to him, and I never saw it. How could I not see it?" Her eyes shone with tears as she turned toward him. "I loved him, I _still_ love him. I hate him now too but I can't stop thinking about how happy we were here."

"I know," he whispered, laying his hand on her arm. "And you never will, but Ellie this isn't your fault."

Ellie sniffled and sunk down in the pillows, turning her back on him. Her breath hitched and he knew that she was trying desperately to swallow her sobs.

"I know it's difficult, but you have to forgive yourself," he said softly.

"Just like you did?" she retorted bitterly.

She rolled over to face him and he felt a weight on his chest that had little to do with his heart condition.

"I know that's why you're here," she said softly. "You feel obligated, don't you? You feel somehow it's your fault that this happened to me just because you were the one that finally got him and told me it was him."

He shut his eyes and swallowed hard.

"But it's not your fault, Alec," she said firmly. Her hand rested lightly on his chest and he opened his eyes to find her hovering at eyelevel. "This is not Sandbrook. You did what you had to, and you caught the killer. Don't make me into some kind of penance again just because you think you broke me in the process. You didn't."

He gazed up at her, seeing for the first time a flash of the proud Ellie that had held her head high and hadn't been afraid to tell him exactly what she thought of him. And he finally had the courage to tell her what he really thought of her.

"I don't think anyone could ever break you, Ellie, you're a lot more stubborn and stronger than that," he told her thickly. "Just don't forget it."

Tears welled up in her eyes and Alec was sure that he'd screwed up again. God, why couldn't he control his tongue around her?

"You're wrong," she said weakly, echoing a statement that had been made months ago, but this time there was hope in her eyes instead of horror.

"I'm not," he insisted, sliding his hand up her arm.

This time she didn't argue with him, instead she curled up beside him. She didn't object when he lazily left his arm around her, but he raised his eyebrows when she decided that his chest made a more comfortable pillow.

"Oh, come off it," she grumbled. "You're taking up more than half the bed and I'm practically divorced."

Alec laughed and Ellie fell asleep smiling.

Outside the little house, the storm battled on, but inside Alec and Ellie finally slept in peace.

**A/N: I apologize for the OOCness and the lack of research. I tried to rewrite this so many times but my version of Alec and Ellie were so stubborn that they were reluctant to change. So expect future chapters, because I ended up writing more instead! Let me know what you think!**


	4. Stranded in a Storm

**When the Storm Breaks**

**By Hazelmist**

**A/N: This fourth part picks up the morning after the previous chapter and goes on from there. **

The worst storms were always the ones that no one ever saw coming, former DI Hardy mused as scenes of damaged properties flashed across the television screen. More high-speed winds and heavy rains were predicted for the rest of the day and possibly evening, and warnings were issued for high tides and severe flooding in some areas. Of course, he just so happened to be stranded right smack in the middle of one. Alec muted the television and tossed the remote aside.

Getting a car in this weather was going to take at least an hour, probably longer. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. Coming here had been a mistake. He'd been stuck here for eighteen hours and he'd already taken four of his damn pills. If he was forced to remain in this house with _her_ for just one more hour he was afraid that he'd run out before the sixty minutes were up. The prospect of spending another _minute_ in the same room as _her_ was daunting enough to make him think -

"Shit!"

A loud crash drowned out the rest of Ellie's cursing and the television abruptly turned off. Alec was immediately on his feet and out in the hall. An eerie silence settled over the house in wake of the crash and the lighted doorway he'd left a little while ago was now dark.

"Miller?" he called, taking tentative steps toward the dreaded kitchen. "Everything alright, Miller?" He quickened his steps and halted in the doorway.

The room was a mess. Pots and pans and baking tins littered the tiled floor and nearly all of the cabinets were flung wide open. Automatically, Alec's hand went for a gun that he'd been relieved of months ago but the weapon was just one of many things that had been taken from him after Sandbrook and Broadchurch. Instead, he swiped a pan off the counter as he edged into the room. It was the best he could do when faced with –

A toddler?

"Jesus, Miller!" Alec cried as Ellie suddenly emerged from behind the table with Fred in her arms. His hand shook slightly as he carefully replaced the frying pan that he might've used to bash their heads in with. He leaned against the countertop, closed his eyes, and took a deep steadying breath.

"Are you alright?" Ellie asked.

"I should be asking you that," Alec said gruffly, opening his eyes and straightening up.

"Sorry, sir," she apologized, balancing Fred on her hip. "I turned my back on him for a few minutes and he got into the cabinets." She turned an accusatory glare on her son but he was innocently sucking his thumb and staring at Alec. "I'm trying to scold my son and you're distracting him."

"I think your Mummy's mad at us," Alec addressed the child. Fred shyly turned away from him and buried his face into his mother's neck. Ellie pressed a forgiving kiss to her son's curls, but Alec didn't get off so easily.

"I'll deal with you later," Ellie warned him. "I'm going to take him upstairs. Try not to destroy anything while I'm gone."

"I think your son covered everything," Alec observed, smirking slightly. "Though, I'm still trying to figure out how he managed to cut the power."

Ellie frowned as Alec demonstrated with the light switch. The kitchen remained cloaked in shadows.

"I must've blown a fuse again," Ellie groaned. "It happens almost every time I use the microwave."

"Or the power might've simply gone out due to the storm raging outside," Alec said dryly, recalling the grim weather outlook for the day. "I don't know if you've noticed but we're experiencing unusually high-speed winds and heavy rain."

"Is that why you're still here?" Ellie asked, widening her eyes. "I thought you were hanging around for the pleasure of my company."

"Actually, I'm waiting for you to invite me to dinner," Alec quipped. "I'm on a budget and the cooking was excellent the last time."

Ellie snorted.

"That was because Joe cooked. Ever since I burned Christmas dinner and smashed the smoke detector, Joe always cooks when we have guests."

Her smile wilted and faded from her face. Not even bothering to correct herself, she took Fred and left Alec alone with the mess in the kitchen.

Alec felt inexplicably awful at seeing her so crestfallen. Cleaning up the kitchen was the least he could do for her after having made that blunder. Unfortunately, it wasn't so easy to put everything back the way it was before. In fact it was impossible.

Ellie noticed the instant she stepped back into the kitchen.

"Oh, my God! What did you do?" she gasped, her jaw dropping.

Alec nervously tugged on his earlobe.

"I cleaned up, but I couldn't put everything back in its proper place. So I may have rearranged things a bit." He cleared his throat and shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

"Thank you," she said when she finally collected her jaw. "This is – this is probably the cleanest it's been since I moved in," she confessed guiltily. "Do you think you could come back next week and do the same thing? Maybe make this a regular thing?" she inquired hopefully.

Alec stared at her as if she'd lost her bloody mind. All he'd done was pick up a bit. Besides, this disastrous visit had only proved the fact that they couldn't go more than ten minutes in each other's company without getting into some kind of a row. Why would she invite him back so soon?

"I'm kidding," she reassured him, smiling. She pointed to the doorway. "I'm going to check the fuse box, just in case. Be back in a minute."

Alec hesitated and then trailed after her. She passed the living room and the bathroom, stopping to open a cupboard at the end of the hall. Alec saw what looked like the electrical panel built into the wall and just out of her reach. Ellie wasn't exactly short, but she wasn't nearly as tall as his ex-wife was either. She was about to drag out the step ladder, when Alec easily reached up and over her, undoing the latch so that it swung open to reveal the panel of switches. He felt, rather than saw Ellie startle beside him. He considered it payback for one of the many times she'd nearly given him a heart attack in the past nineteen hours.

Retrieving his glasses, he surveyed the switches. The two of them were crammed so close in the cupboard that Alec was reminded of the many hours when they'd been forced to work in close quarters at the Broadchurch police department. At the time he'd barely noticed how often they'd rubbed shoulders, or bent their heads together to pore over some evidence, or shared the same air as they bounced theories off one another. It struck him suddenly that he had actually missed this kind of contact.

"Which one am I looking for?"

Ellie told him. He moved it back into place and then eyed her expectantly.

"Well?" he asked her, impatiently. "Did it work?"

"I don't know. We won't know unless we run back to the kitchen."

He waited. She stared hard at the switchboard. When her gaze shifted to his, he raised his eyebrows.

"Oh! Right, I'll go!" Flustered, she squeezed past him and hurried away down the hall. He shook his head, wondering if she'd always acted this oddly or if it was just because he hadn't seen her in months and frankly, they hadn't spent this much time together since the near all-nighters they'd pulled during the last weeks of the Latimer case.

"It didn't work," she yelled from the kitchen, poking her head out into the hall.

"Then the wind must have knocked down one of the power lines or something," he called back, closing up the box and resetting the latch. He shut the door and rejoined her in the kitchen. "I'm afraid we'll just have to wait it out." He removed his glasses and tiredly rubbed his eyes.

"_We_?" she asked bemusedly. "Shouldn't your car be here by now?"

"It'll be a while," Alec grumbled, making a note to call for one as soon as she left the room. He didn't want to admit that he'd entirely forgotten to make the call even after she nagged him earlier to do it and they'd argued. Ellie squinted at the battery operated clock on the opposite wall as if she suspected that he was lying.

"Do you think you'll be here for another hour or so?" She bit her lip and turned to look at him.

"I suppose, yeah," Alec grudgingly admitted, kicking himself for having not listened to her that morning, though he'd never tell her that.

"I just put Fred down for a nap," she informed him, scrubbing an invisible spot on the countertop he'd just cleaned. "But I still have to return the paperwork and grab a few things, and then I'll have to get Tom from school…"Ellie trailed off and looked over at him so anxiously that Alec knew that he'd have no choice but to agree to whatever she was about to ask of him.

"Would you mind staying here and keeping an eye on Fred until I get back?"

"Sure," he agreed, nodding and refraining from pointing out the irony in her request, since last night she'd nearly killed him when she found him doing the exact same thing.

Ellie sighed in relief and her shoulders relaxed as if a weight had been lifted. Seeing the immediate change in her, Alec wouldn't have regretted agreeing to it, even if she had asked something more difficult of him.

"I'll be back soon, I promise," she assured him. "And Fred almost always sleeps so you can just watch television or use my laptop or something until I get back and your car comes."

"I can't do _that_, we're in the middle of a power outage," he pointed out again, but she'd already rushed from the room to retrieve her purse and parka.

"Miller. _Miller_!" He caught up to her at the door. She was giving him a list of instructions in case Fred woke up, but she was trying to put her boots and parka on at the same time so he only made sense of half of what she was saying. He picked up her purse before she tripped over it again and held it out to her once she'd finally gotten both feet covered and both arms in the sleeves.

"Thanks," she said breathlessly, taking it from him. She was just about to run out the door, when he clamped a hand down on her shoulder.

"They're calling for severe flooding in areas," he warned her, turning her around so that she was forced to look at him. She rolled her eyes.

"I know, _sir_, I've lived here all my life. I think I know by now how to drive in the rain."

His hand slid from her shoulder, reaching behind her neck to grasp the hood of her jacket. She froze as he gently tugged it up and over her curls. He adjusted the hood with both hands until it fit snugly over her head and clapped her on the shoulder.

"Drive safely, Ellie," he told her, releasing her and stepping back. Ellie blinked at him as if he'd just said something more alarming than her first name and then shaking it off, she disappeared out into the storm and slammed the door shut behind her.

Less than an hour ago he'd longed for a moment's respite from her, but now in her absence he missed her. He told himself that it was because he was still stranded in this small gloomy house right on the edge of that same beach that still reappeared in his nightmares and probably Ellie's as well. He'd be fine once he was miles and miles away from this place and sleeping in a bed by himself in a room that he'd rented for the month, but until then he paced throughout the house in the growing shadows. He'd checked on Fred twice and glanced at the clock too many times before he decided to do something or give into his anxiety and empty the packet of pills that was still tucked away in his coat. This time when he circled the kitchen table, he paused in front of the stove.

He had dinner ready and a wide awake Fred strapped into his highchair by the time Ellie and Tom came in over two hours later.

"Sorry I'm late," she apologized, dropping a soggy bag of groceries on the counter. "I got held up at the store and then I had to go on a detour to avoid the roads that were closed due to the flooding." Alec had to bite back the urge to tell her, I told you so.

"It was so cool!" Tom gushed excitedly, sitting down next to his younger brother. His hair was wet and he was still wearing his dripping raincoat and mud caked rain boots. "We passed a van parked on the other side of the road that was almost completely underwater!"

"Tom! Go hang up your raincoat!" Ellie ordered him, worriedly eyeing the growing puddle of muddied water underneath his boots.

Tom sighed but reluctantly did as he was told. Ellie immediately went over to kiss and greet her youngest son and Alec emptied the bag of groceries before the bag tore.

"I really am sorry. I knew I shouldn't have taken that road. But if it wasn't for that van – "she stopped in mid-sentence, gaping at him. "You made dinner?"

"I got hungry," Alec confessed, shrugging. He decided not to remind her that there was really nothing else he could do since the power had yet to come back on. Thankfully, Ellie had a gas stove.

"What'd you make?" she asked curiously, going over to the stove.

"That looks like cheesy pasta!" Tom exclaimed, coming up behind his mother. "Is it cheesy pasta, Mum? You _never_ make cheesy pasta!"

"I didn't make it," Ellie said, looking pointedly at Alec who was studiously putting away the groceries with his back to her.

"How come _you_ never make cheesy pasta?" Tom pouted. "It's so good."

"Because I won't buy it," Ellie replied, burning holes into Alec's back until he closed the fridge and was forced to turn around. "Go wash up for dinner Tom and then set the table."

"But it's so dark in here," Tom complained as he obediently left the kitchen. "I hope the lights come back on soon." As soon as Tom was safely out of earshot, Ellie rounded on him.

"Where the hell did you get that?"

"I got it from your cabinet," Alec answered, folding his arms to mirror her posture. Ellie was unconvinced. He wasn't in the mood to fight with her, especially since Tom was going to be back any second. "It was in there, I swear, all the way in the back."

Ellie scrutinized him and then loosened her arms, bringing one hand up to her temple.

"Perhaps, I did purchase it. Tom might've put it in my basket when I wasn't paying attention," she theorized.

"He does seem to like it," Alec remarked dryly. Ellie gave him a look and Alec smiled sheepishly. "I had – have a daughter, you know. She used to go crazy for this stuff. This was one of the last things I cooked for her before – before I left," he finished lamely, rubbing the back of his neck. There was too much pity in Ellie's eyes.

"Why don't you ever –"

"Tom's right," Alec deliberately interrupted her. "It got dark in here. We'll need a torch or a –"

"I've got some candles," Ellie offered, dashing off. Alec was grateful she'd allowed him to drop it so easily, even after two years, discussing his daughter or his ex-wife or Sandbrook was still painful.

A few minutes later, Ellie returned with Tom, both of them with arms full of candles of various sizes and lengths. None of them matched. Tom set the table and Ellie dished out the pasta, while Alec went through the candles and rejected most of them. Ellie took over once she finished before he could discard all of them. She leaned close to him and whispered,

"You did check the expiration date on the box, right?"

"What?"

"When we moved in here a couple of months ago the previous tenants left some food in the cabinets. I thought I got all of it, but I might've missed a box or Tom might've –" Both of them glanced over their shoulder at Tom who was shoveling it into his mouth as if this was going to be his last meal.

"It's fine," Alec said, patting her shoulder. "Pasta lasts for years."

As soon as he got a chance, he snuck over to the rubbish bin and checked the box. It expired in a week, but Ellie didn't need to know that.

He squeezed in between Ellie and Tom, across from Fred. The two candles Ellie selected for the table were safely out of Fred's reach. Alec was grateful that at least one of the candles was fragrance free, until he made a comment about not being able to identify the scent of the other one. Ellie told him that they were both fragrance free and Alec realized to his horror that what he thought smelt quite nice, wasn't the candle at all but the woman sitting beside him. He'd never tell her that, though.

Alec couldn't remember the last time he ate by candlelight or sat down to dinner like this with small children. But it wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as he anticipated. He kind of liked the way the glow of the candlelight touched each of their faces, and he liked how he was almost forgotten by Ellie as she and Tom laughed when they made Fred giggle, and he loved how when Ellie finally looked at him with that pure happiness on her face that only her children could still give her, she touched his sleeve, and the lights immediately flickered back on. Tom whooped and Alec actually laughed.

Tom ran out of the kitchen to watch television, with Ellie hollering after him that he better be doing his homework too. Alec collected the dishes and Ellie started to rinse them.

"You should probably call for a car now," she suggested, smirking, "Unless you want to sleep in the shower again."

Alec smirked back at her and pulled out his mobile, because they both knew that he never made that call earlier and they both knew that he definitely didn't sleep in the shower last night. As Alec watched her out of the corner of his eye, watching him, he thought that maybe getting stranded here with _her_ hadn't been so bad after all.

By the time the car arrived, thirty-five minutes later, Alec and Ellie were arguing again. But Alec went back to his hotel with Ellie's new number programmed into his mobile and a promise that next time, if there ever was a next time, she would cook for him. Pulling out the remaining pills from his coat, he realized that he survived the day with her, just barely. He looked out the window and smiled slightly. Outside the rain had stopped and the storm was over.

**A/N: Sorry for the delay. I was going to jump ahead, but I couldn't resist doing the morning after. I still have at least two more chapters written, though I think I'll have to write more to fill in the gaps in the plot between the two. Thank you so much for reviewing! I really appreciate it and please do tell me what you think! **


	5. Snowstorm

**When the Storm Breaks**

**By Hazelmist**

**Chapter 5: Snowstorm**

It was snowing by the time Alec finally found the coffee shop on High Street. He wasn't surprised that he'd walked by it the first time. People had stopped in the middle of the road and more were pouring out of the shops on either side of the street to exclaim at the unusual sight. Alec shook his head at all the daft individuals around him gaping, and grinning, and giggling like they'd never seen anything so wonderful. Most of them weren't even dressed appropriately.

"It's just snow," he grumbled, "and it's freezing." Hurriedly, he ducked inside the little coffee shop. A wave of warmth and the strong aroma of coffee washed over him as soon as the door swung shut behind him.

"Alec!" Ellie had stood up, and was obnoxiously calling him by name and waving him over to a table by the window. At least she wasn't wearing the dreaded orange parka. After Alec had cooked for her and her two sons, Ellie had offered to return the favor, but Ellie's idea of cooking apparently translated to treating him to a cup of coffee. Alec couldn't even drink coffee anymore.

She sat back down as he approached, and Alec was slightly disappointed that she was alone. He'd barely been aware of Fred's existence when they'd actually worked together, but with Joe gone, Fred was always with her now.

"Where's the little one?" Alec asked, unwinding the scarf from his neck.

"He's with his grandmother," Ellie said, smiling stiffly. "Joe's mother," she clarified and turned back to watch the spectacle outside.

Alec dropped into the seat across from her. He hadn't realized that Ellie had kept in contact with Joe's family. In fact, he hadn't even been aware that Joe had other family until now. Come to think of it, he didn't know much about Ellie's family besides the sister and that little shit of a nephew of hers that had jeopardized their investigation on bloody twitter.

"When did it start to snow?" She frowned at the window. Alec wondered how she could've possibly missed it, sitting right next to the window with a full view of everyone making fools out of themselves.

"A little while ago," Alec replied and he was about to comment on all the idiots outside, when she reached across the table and absentmindedly brushed his hair back from his forehead. He forgot what he was going to say as their eyes met and she abruptly realized what she was doing. Recoiling, she nervously brought her hand back to her own hair.

"You had some snow in your hair," she explained, but Alec didn't miss the blush that spread across her cheeks, or the way she nearly tripped over her own purse when she suddenly stood up. "I'll go get you a coffee," she offered, so flustered she actually walked away without the purse she just stumbled over. He retrieved ten quid from his own wallet before she noticed at the counter and rushed back.

"Take it," he ordered and held it out to her. She was too embarrassed to protest and he probably owed her anyway.

When she came back, she set something down in front of him that he definitely would've never ordered.

"I can't drink that," he said and turned up his nose.

"Yes, you can. It's decaf and it's the healthiest thing they had on the menu. I checked," she assured him, blowing on her own coffee. The familiar scent wafted toward him and he watched enviously as she drank it.

"You could at least _try_ it," Ellie suggested and nudged the cup closer to him.

"You try it," Alec said, childishly pushing it back toward her. Ellie removed the lid and sniffed it, but she didn't dare taste it. Replacing the cap, she handed it back to him.

"It's not going to kill you." Ellie rolled her eyes when he refused to accept it. "If I wanted to poison you or make you go into cardiac arrest, don't you think I already would've done it?"

"You have done it," he reminded her, though they both knew it hadn't been her fault. "And you've already attempted it numerous times since then."

"Oh, for God's sake," Ellie cursed and raised the cup to her lips. She took a long swallow and set it back down. "See?" she said and spread her hands out on the table. "That wasn't so hard. Now, you try," she challenged him.

Alec made a face, but he wasn't about to back down now that she'd practically dared him. It was just as predictably awful as he expected. He grimaced and replaced the cup between them.

"What the hell was that?"

"I don't remember," Ellie said, scrunching up her nose. "But I'm glad you paid for it and not me," she added cheekily. She washed the taste out of her mouth with a sip of her own coffee, and Alec was so insanely jealous that he wanted to snatch the cup right out of her hands and drain it himself.

"Get your own!" Ellie snapped, possessively drawing the cup closer to her chest. Alec realized belatedly that he had unconsciously leaned across the table and actually gone so far as to brush his fingers over hers before she'd pulled away.

Sulkily, he slumped back in his chair and fiddled with the cup of whatever the hell she'd gotten him. He stared at Ellie Miller and wondered why even though they didn't quite hate each other anymore, they still couldn't get through a cup of coffee like the ordinary people that sat around them.

"You're staring again," Ellie observed.

"I am not," he denied it. Alec fidgeted in his seat and glanced out the window because she was right, he had been looking at her almost since the moment he'd walked in. He tapped his fingers against the tabletop, knowing that something was off here, but still unsure as to whether he should ask why. It wasn't any of his business.

"Look, why don't you just go over there and get yourself something that you actually want?" she asked him, clearly agitated.

Grunting, he sat up and spotted the writing on the side of the cup for the first time. Someone had messily scrawled a name and a number on the side of the cup in permanent marker. Amused, he handed it back to her.

"Do you want to hold on to that?" he teased her, smirking. Ellie didn't find it funny.

"Go over there and talk to her before I decide to throw that cup back in your face," she hissed and picked her purse up off the floor.

"Who?"

"Alec, I'm not an idiot! You've been staring at her since you walked in, and I'm sure she's been looking at you if she was the one who wrote her number on the side of your cup," she continued furiously in a hushed voice.

"What are you talking about?" Alec asked, getting to his feet with her. "Wait, Miller, where are you going?"

"I'm going to use the restroom," she said, "You're going to get a coffee." She shooed him out of her way and disappeared into the back of the coffee shop before he could puzzle out what was going on.

Alec stared down at the cup in his hand and then at Ellie's abandoned coffee cup. He lifted his head and was startled to see that Ellie was in fact right, there was an attractive blonde woman staring directly at him, but it wasn't the woman working at the counter that Ellie had suspected.

She smiled when Alec caught her staring at him, but was forced to turn away while the man at the counter took her order. When the woman turned around again to look at him, Alec had already sat back down and was distracted by the group of men and women that had just followed her inside. One of the men called to her familiarly and struck up a conversation with her. Alec noted that she was a lot younger than he'd originally guessed, just by the manner in which the older man was addressing her. Alec suspected that she was a grad student, perhaps an intern or a junior–

Shit. The girl stole another peek at him and this time the man's attention was drawn with her. While the girl had no idea who he was, it was immediately obvious by the way the man did a double take and narrowed his eyes that _he_ was no stranger to the former Detective Inspector.

Perhaps, Alec could've slipped right out of the coffee shop with no one the wiser, but he had someone else to worry about now. Someone, who it turned out, chose the worst possible time to march out of the restroom and create a scene.

"Alec, you didn't talk to her, did you?" she demanded, completely oblivious to the audience they had even as he stepped in front of her to shield her from view. "God, you're so stubborn. Do you need me to go over there and ask her out for you, or was she just not good enough for you?"

"Mill - Ellie," he corrected himself, grasping her tightly by the arms and leaning in to whisper quickly into her ear, "Listen to me, unless you want to make the bloody front page of the Daily Mail I suggest you leave right now."

"What?" She struggled against him until she spotted the group of reporters waiting at the counter and her eyes widened.

"Keep your head down and don't talk to anyone," he whispered. Releasing her, he asked loudly if she was alright and apologized for running into her. Ellie nodded. Still dazed, she scuttled past him and the press, and vanished out the door.

Alec breathed a sigh of relief as the door shut behind her and she passed by the window that their table looked out upon. Hurriedly, he took Ellie's coffee cup and hid it under the table, praying they hadn't seen them together. His heart wouldn't slow and he was forced to sit down before the dizziness got to him. Leaning his elbow on the table and resting his forehead in his hand, he tried to calm himself. That had been close, too close.

He should've known he wouldn't get off that easily. When he looked up again, the reporter from the Daily Mail was standing in front of him and one of their photographers had their camera out.

"D.I. Hardy, I thought that was you," the reporter, whose name Alec couldn't remember, drawled. "I'll never forget the worst cop in Britain."

"Not anymore, I'm retired," Alec informed him.

"Don't matter to me you'll always be the worst cop in Britain after what you did to that poor family," the reporter sneered. Alec bit down on his tongue, so he wouldn't point out what the press had done to that poor family and give them another reason to put him in the paper. He focused instead on recalling the man's name.

"I read that sob story you fed the locals," the reporter went on, "I don't believe a bloody word of it," he said, shaking his head and stepping close enough to crowd Alec. "I didn't believe a word of that bullshit from the start, but now seeing you here, cozying up with the copper that was married to your Broadchurch killer, I've got proof that you lied about Sandbrook and that you lied about Broadchurch too."

Alec's head shot up and immediately he recalled the reporter's name and an ugly history that went along with it. Of course, he'd been at Joe Miller's trial, the one that he'd specifically told Ellie not to go to for this very reason. But Alec recognized him from somewhere else. Thank god, because the next words that came out of the reporter's mouth, would've forced him to have done something that would've gotten one of them killed.

"I'll be promoted for getting the scoop on this one. The two worst cops in Britain are having an affair. People just love scandal, you know, and this story just reeks of it. Perhaps, we could do a follow up about how Miller knew all along what her husband was up to, and yet she didn't do a bloody thing until she decided to move on to the DI that promised to cover up–"

"Aright, that's enough out of you," Alec snarled and slammed his fist down on the table so hard that he managed to gather the attention of every single person in the coffee shop. He rose to his feet and towered over the shorter man. Grasping the man by the front of his ridiculously puffy jacket, he dragged him toward him. And then before the fat man could even suck in another breath let alone speak, Alec gave him a name that instantly drained all the color out of the reporter's fleshy face.

The reporter wrenched himself free from Alec.

"H-how?" he stammered, breathing almost as hard as Alec was now.

"I'm the worst cop in Britain, remember?" Alec reminded him, baring his teeth.

"You have no proof," the reporter spat, trying to regain his footing.

Alec lowered his voice to barely above a whisper and threatened, "If you even _think _about bringing the name Millerinto the paper, or even imply _anything_ about her without mentioning her name, I will find enough proof and scandal to make _your_ little secret the front fucking page of every newspaper in the country."

The reporter stared hard at Alec as if he wanted desperately to call his bluff, but when Alec shoved past him and out the door of the now silent coffee shop, no one dared follow.

Alec barely made it past the front of the coffee shop before he felt the familiar sense of vertigo and the sharp pain in his chest. Fortunately, there was an alleyway between the next two buildings that he could stumble into. Leaning up against the brick wall, he dug around in his coat until he found the pills. He swallowed them down with difficulty and braced himself against the side of the building. All he could do now was will himself to stay conscious and keep breathing.

"Are you alright, sir?"

"I'm fine." Alec opened his eyes to see one of the coffee shop employees with a lighter in one hand and a cigarette in the other. It was the man from behind the counter. Alec straightened up and recognition dawned on the younger man's face. Dropping his cigarette, he backed right out of the alley and into the street.

Great, Alec groaned as he rested uncomfortably against the brick wall, he probably went to go get the reporters or worse help. The last thing Alec needed right now was to be arrested for assaulting a reporter or rushed to the hospital in front of said reporter. At least his heart seemed to have resumed a somewhat regular pace…until Ellie Miller suddenly reappeared. Her face was ashen as she rushed into the alleyway.

"I'm fine!" he insisted.

"That's not what the man from the coffee shop said!" Ellie argued. "I went back to the coffee shop and he ran in and told me that you were out here. What happened?"

"Nothing," he lied. Ellie smacked him.

"You have a heart condition! What the fuck possessed you to pick a fight with a reporter?" she scolded him, crossing her arms over her chest. Someone had filled her in at least on some of the details.

"He provoked me," Alec admitted and added petulantly, "said that I was still the worst cop in Britain."

Ellie stared at him for a full minute and then snorted, disbelievingly.

"He did!"

"I bet he did," Ellie agreed with him, "but I'm sure that's not all he said, and I doubt that something as silly as that could make you completely lose your head and strangle a reporter."

"You're right," Alec conceded, gazing down at her. They both knew that it took a lot to make a man like Alec lose his head entirely, but what Ellie didn't know was that he'd almost lost it over her. Alec was hoping he could keep it that way. She already had enough problems, he reminded himself, studying her. She was too pale, there were bags beneath her eyes, and she had -

"Is that -?" He pushed himself off the wall so suddenly that Ellie stumbled backwards. She fetched up against the opposite wall of the narrow alleyway and Alec closed in on her. He touched one end of the familiar scarf and looked into her wide eyes. "Miller, you're wearing _my_ scarf!"

"'Course I am," she answered and shoved him away from her.

"You stole my scarf!" he accused her. She rolled her eyes and took it off for him.

"Well, you did break into my house, so I think we're even now," she retorted and threw it back at him. He caught it against his chest.

"You left it in the coffee shop, moron. Must've forgot it after you went off your rocker and tried to throttle the reporter," she said, shaking her head at him. "You're not even going to tell me what he said to you, are you?"

Alec ignored her and carelessly wound the scarf around his neck. Ellie absentmindedly reached up again to fix it for him. Her hands lingered on the material and Alec cleared his throat.

"Stop trying to steal my scarf, Miller."

"You tried to steal my coffee," Ellie grumbled back and turned away from him to hide her embarrassment.

"We better go our separate ways before that reporter comes back and decides to take a picture of us in an alleyway together," she predicted, scowling.

"He's not coming back," Alec assured her.

"You don't know that," she countered, facing him.

"He won't," Alec said firmly and he got an odd sense of déjà vu. "I promise," he vowed.

"You can't make that promise. I know he recognized me," Ellie admitted, biting down on her lip and pretending to be very interested in her boots. "I should've listened to you. I shouldn't have gone to the trial."

"Ellie," he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You were right."

"I didn't want to be," he told her and dropped his hand from his face. She was staring right back at him. "Ellie, I never wanted you to go to Joe's trial because I _knew_ what they could do to you and it scared me." Ellie swallowed hard and Alec softened. He stepped closer and rested a hand on her shoulder.

"But you had your own reasons for going and I shouldn't have tried to stop you. I just wish I could've stopped those reporters from swarming you after the sentencing," he confessed.

"Alec, it wasn't your fault," Ellie protested. "I know I said it was, but I was upset."

"We both were," Alec agreed, remembering that rainy afternoon ages ago when they'd fought and walked away from each other in the aftermath of Joe Miller's sentencing. If it hadn't been for the cowardly Broadchurch police department contacting him to straighten out the Miller divorce paperwork mess, Alec probably never would've seen Ellie Miller again.

"But even if I wasn't able to protect you that day from those vultures," he went on seriously. "I promise you that as long as I'm still breathing they won't come after you again."

Ellie blinked up at him. Then after a long moment, she lifted a hand and tapped his chest, right where his heart was.

"Then I guess you better start taking care of this," she admonished him, gently. His heart skipped a beat and he shook her off.

"Come on, Miller," he urged, but even as he led the way back out onto High Street, he couldn't help but mull over her words.

"Whatever happened with the girl in the coffee shop?" she asked, falling into step beside him. "Did you keep her number?"

It took Alec a moment to figure out what she was talking about. But when he did, suddenly everything clicked into place and Alec wondered how he could have missed it.

"Oh, I don't think Terry was interested in me at all," Alec snorted.

"What do you mean?" Ellie asked, scrambling to keep up with him.

"Miller, Terry's the boy's name," Alec explained, patiently. "The young man at the counter gave _you_ his number."

Ellie stopped right in the middle of the road and gaped at him. Chuckling, Alec took her by the elbow to hurry her along before a car mistook them for one of those snow-loving idiots and decided to hit them. He kept his fingers curled around her elbow even after they'd safely crossed the street. Ellie was completely gob smacked.

"Do you want to go back to the coffee shop?" Alec teased her. "I think he might be getting off work soon-"

Ellie recovered and punched his shoulder. Alec laughed.

"What's the matter, Miller? Is he not good enough for you?" he parroted back her words from earlier. And even though she tried not to, Ellie smiled.

"He's probably not even old enough to date your daughter."

At the mention of his daughter, Alec choked mid-laugh. He backed up into the storefront to catch his breath and brought Ellie with him.

"Sorry," Ellie apologized softly. "I didn't mean to bring her up."

"It's alright." And it was, he decided. Perhaps, one day, he might tell Ellie about her. And perhaps one day Ellie might tell him about her mother-in-law and they'd actually make it through a cup of coffee like normal people, but not today. He squeezed her arm reassuringly and pushed her gently away.

"Go get Fred, Miller. I know you've been worrying about him the whole time."

"Not just him," she said, looking pointedly at him.

"For the last time, Miller, I'm fine," Alec sighed. She still seemed unconvinced so he moved away from the store front and closed the short distance between them. Stretching out a hand, he lightly brushed his fingers over her damp curls. Confusion clouded her face and he smiled slightly.

"You've got snow in your hair, Ellie."

"So, do you," she murmured, smiling. Raising a hand, she ran her fingers through his hair. Alec closed his eyes.

When he opened them, Ellie was walking away from him and the snow was turning into rain.

**A/N: Sorry for the delay. I decided to write another chapter and it didn't quite turn out how I planned. Hopefully, the next one won't take as long. **


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